North River Community Church, an evangelical Christian church that serves Boston’s South Shore, recently took delivery of a Midas M32 Digital Console and Behringer P16 Personal Headphone system. Professional Audio Design of Pembroke, Mass., provided and installed the M32/P16 system, and provided training for the media staff at NRCC.
Previously relying on a 40-channel analog console for front-of-house, and a 32-channel analog console for onstage monitors, the Midas M32 enabled NRCC to consolidate to one console to handle all FOH and monitor needs.
“We had been struggling for years to get our onstage experience to match what the congregation hears,” explains David Coate, worship leader for NRCC. “We never had a dedicated monitor engineer, so our onstage experience always left something lacking.”
“We considered a number of different consoles and monitor solutions, and found that the Midas M32 with the Behringer P16 personal monitor system gave us the ability to both control the monitor mix from the FOH console, while also giving the performers the ability to individually tailor their own in-ear mix,” says Patrick O’Neill, director of media for NRCC. “We also were able to completely eliminate our rack of outboard compressors, gates, effects, and even our CD recorder, as the M32 lets us record rehearsals or services directly to a USB stick. Having all of that integrated into the console has made the whole FOH setup more compact, yet much more powerful than our previous setup.”
“The console is very well laid out, and easy to understand, which helps tremendously [with] training the staff, none of whom are professional engineers,” says John Songdahl, sales VP at Professional Audio Design. “One of our main concerns with recommending the best solution for NRCC was finding a console/monitoring system that could be taught to non-audio professionals in a short amount of time. The Midas M32 with the Behringer P16 personal monitor system offered the needed amount of inputs and outputs, expandability, excellently built in DSP processing and effects, and most importantly, a direct digital interface to the onstage in-ear headphone monitoring system. It’s also very easy to learn and understand, as we created mix templates that can be recalled, so even a non-engineer can operate the sound system.”
“We are extremely happy with the results of the upgrade,” adds Coate. “We’ve gone from a situation where performers were frustrated and often upset with their monitors, to hearing everything just like it is coming off a CD. We’re hearing much more of the detail of the mix, which elevates everybody’s energy level and performance.”
For more information, visit www.proaudiodesign.com.
Find more information about the Midas M32 digital console.
Find more information about the Behringer P16 Personal Monitoring System.
